Today I want to tell you about one of the projects that inspired Multitude
I was approached by its creator on Twitter. I have no idea how they’d found me, but I was backing a lot of projects at the time, so I took a look.
I played the video.
5 minutes of a man in a rocking chair in poor lighting, rambling about comedy duos to his laptop
At this point I knew I wasn’t going to back this project, but I also realised something else… Despite watching the entire 5 minutes, I still had no idea what this project actually was.
I was intrigued (and bored) enough to look further.
I read the rewards, then the description, then the ‘risks and challenges’. After all that…
I still had no idea what the project was
It could have been a film, a webseries, a television pilot… anything really. To this day I still have no idea.
This creator suffered from The Curse of Knowledge
Wikipedia defines The Curse of Knowledge as being:
In crowdfunding, this is when you are so intimately involved with your project that you fail to include details which are critical to your project’s success. These details are so elementary to your thought process that you can’t even consider someone else doesn’t know what you’re talking about.
I bet the creator of the project knew exactly what he was talking about… it’s just a shame no-one else did.
If your project is failing to perform, you might be suffering from The Curse of Knowledge. You’re failing to articulate exactly what it is you’re doing in a way that makes people understand and want to help you.
So how do you diagnose and fix this problem?
First, find someone honest and intelligent to look at your page. Preferably someone who has never talked to you about your project (old Facebook friends are a good place to start).
Ask them (nicely) if they would lend you 15 minutes of their time to help you out.
Don’t tell them anything. Simply send them the link, and ask them to answer these three questions:
- What am I trying to raise money for?
- What am I going to spend the money on?
- Do you have any questions about what I’m trying to do?
If your campaign is clear, then their answers will match what you’re actually trying to do. If your campaign is not clear, ambiguous or misleading, this exercise will highlight it pretty quickly, showing you what you can change to increase clarity.
Have you ever come across a project and been flummoxed by what it actually was? Can you think of any other examples of The Curse of Knowledge in your own life? I’d love to hear from you in the comments below.
